1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a keyboard-type percussion instrument having sounding members each adapted to generate a musical tone when struck.
2. Description of the Related Art
A keyboard-type tone plate percussion instrument has been known, which includes a plurality of keys, hammer actions respectively corresponding to the keys, rectangular tone plates (sounding members) each adapted to be struck by a corresponding hammer action, and resonance boxes disposed above the tone plates and causing tones generated by tone plates to resonate therein (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. 05-081895). The hammer actions of this tone plate percussion instrument are similar to those of a grand piano. When any of the keys is depressed by a player, a corresponding hammer action strikes a tone plate concerned, whereby the tone plate vibrates to generate a musical tone of a tone pitch proper to the tone plate.
A grand piano of the type including hammer actions similar to those disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. 05-081895 is provided with a soft pedal that makes it easy to generate a soft tone. In such a grand piano, a plurality of strings are provided for each key, and when any of the keys is depressed by a player, a corresponding plurality of strings are struck. When the soft pedal is stepped on by the player, a positional relation between each hammer and corresponding strings is changed to decrease the number of strings struck by the hammer, whereby the volume of a generated musical tone is made small.
Although the keyboard-type tone plate percussion instrument disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. 05-081895 includes hammer actions similar to those of a grand piano, there is only provided one tone plate for each key. In this tone plate percussion instrument, therefore, it is impossible to adopt a construction for decreasing the volume of tone by reducing the number of tone plates struck by a corresponding hammer, and thus the player wishing to produce a soft tone is required to finely adjust a key depression force, making it difficult to produce a soft tone in a musical performance.